


Theft

by ariphyll



Category: RWBY
Genre: I Don't Even Know, M/M, Pancakes, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-04-26
Packaged: 2018-01-20 20:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1524632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariphyll/pseuds/ariphyll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That’s why Ren was staring at the plate holding all of the pancakes made that morning with confusion. There was twenty on that plate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Theft

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: miss-nerdgasmz asked: Can you write some Lie and Steal for RWBY? (Ren + Sun)
> 
> Alright, I’ll admit, this turned out to be much different than what I planned so I’m sorry if this wasn’t what you wanted, but I attempted. I wasn’t sure if you wanted it to be heavily platonic or romantic so I just sort of compromised.

Pancakes were one of the few things Lie Ren could make without having to worry about messing up. He had made them so often for Nora when they were kids that it was simple enough to quickly whip up a batch in the morning. It was simple and easy for him, and didn’t require a lot of focus in the morning when he was still half asleep.

One thing he was always consistent on however, no matter Nora’s protests that she wanted more than that, was the number of pancakes he made. It was always twenty-three, no more, no less. Friends wanted some? Still twenty-three. Nora wanted a whole batch to herself? Twenty-three. The amount of pancakes he made was always twenty-three, a constant in Ren’s life.

After being friends with Nora for so long, and being a Hunter in training, having some constants in his life was a pleasure. So that’s why Ren was staring at the plate holding all of the pancakes made that morning with confusion. There was twenty on that plate.

“Hey Nora, did you take three of them already?” Ren asked, turning to his flighty friend.

“Nope!” she chirped, stabbing a few of the pancakes and dashing them onto her plate. “Why? Are three missing?”

“Yeah… that’s odd,” Ren mumbled, mainly to himself.

“Maybe you just made twenty of them this time instead of twenty-three!” Nora called over her shoulder as she left to go sit.

Lie Ren frowned slightly. No, he wouldn’t have made twenty. He knew he made twenty-three pancakes, but where the extra three went he couldn’t begin to imagine. Looking around the surrounding area, Ren became more annoyed at the fact he couldn’t find them.

Sighing in defeat, Lie Ren gave up the case for the moment. Maybe Nora was right, maybe he had just made twenty. Maybe he had made the batter too short and so the batch was smaller. Trying to believe in those thoughts, Ren decided to just make sure on the number next time.

Absent-mindedly brushing some blonde hair away from the plate, Ren prepared his own plate of breakfast.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Nineteen. Unless he was losing his mind, Lie Ren counted nineteen pancakes. There should be twenty-three, not twenty, and certainly not nineteen. He counted each pancake as he made them and it was twenty-three, and then he turned for a moment and now it was nineteen. Why was there nineteen.

“Nora, are you positive no one is taking any of these?” Ren asked, becoming steadily more confused.

“Nope, sorry Ren. At least we still have nineteen left, so the thief is at least not taking too many,” Nora grinned but the smile did nothing to help Ren.

A thief? The thought hadn’t really occurred to Lie Ren. Seriously, who steals food, let alone what he cooks? Especially when everyone in Beacon knew that they could just ask and he would give them a couple of pancakes. Was someone honestly stealing his pancakes without him noticing?

The black-haired boy thought over the idea throughout breakfast, wondering if that’s where the pancakes were going. It made some sense, and it certainly helped prove that he wasn’t losing his mind and losing the ability to count. There was only two problems. Who was able to sneak past his senses fast enough and who steals food in Beacon?

Eating his own slice of the pancakes silently, Lie Ren debated on if he should just keep the pancakes within watch at all times. Perhaps if he just kept a better eye on them the thief would stop and leave the perfect twenty-three pancakes alone? Nora supported the idea whole-heartedly and while that should have proven that it wasn’t a great idea at all, Ren decided near the end of breakfast to officially go on pancake watch.

Okay, yeah, he’d have to find a better name to call it.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Ren, it’s been ten minutes, if they were going to be stolen they already would have,” Nora grumbled, hungry and impatient.

“A few more minutes Nora, and then you can start eating,” Ren replied, focused completely on the pancakes.

“But _Ren_ ,” Nora whined. “We’ll be late if I don’t get anything to eat in time!”

Ren shifted his eyesight over to his friend for a moment. “Two more minutes Nora then I’m sure-”

The ruffle of air nest to Ren’s ear didn’t go unnoticed but he was too slow in turning around, finding only empty space.

Oh come _on_. Sighing heavily, Ren rubbed his eyes and walked away from the pancakes that had obviously been shifted, not even bothering to count how many were taken. Honestly, he didn’t want to know how many left from the small time he took his eyes off of them. Whoever was doing this was either trying to screw him up or just didn’t understand that the concept of sharing wasn’t foreign to him.

“Hey! There’s only eighteen eighteen!”

Ren groaned. “Thank you, Nora.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lie Ren wasn’t super particular on things. He mainly went with what happened and accepted it, never really getting worked up about anything. All he wanted was a few consistent things and the rest he didn’t care about. This, however, this pancakes number falling? Now this was, in a lighter sense of the phrase, driving him up the wall.

“It’s just some pancakes, Ren, calm down,” Nora said through a stuffed face. “Who cares if they’re taking some of them?”

Ren ignored the urge to roll his eyes. “It’s hard to lose a pattern, Nora. It’s always been twenty-three pancakes every Monday since we were kids. The right number to have just enough for you, me, and maybe a few others. It’s always been that way.”

“Well, it’s not like he’s taking them all, so I don’t mind sharing a few with our little thief.”

“Don’t you see what’s happening, Nora? Every time I make some, the thief grabs the same number as he did the week before plus one. There were seventeen left this week, so I hope you know the fact it’s decreasing by one each week means it might drop to none – leaving none for you to have.”

Nora stopped chewing for a second before her face grew cold. “We’re going to hunt him down.”

It was as Nora said this that a local (well, local for while the tournament was going on) Faunus walked over to the duo, raising an eyebrow at Nora’s comment. “Who are you guys hunting down?”

“Oh hi, Sun. It’s just the guy who’s stealing Ren’s pancakes,” Nora said simply. “Trust me, if I ever catch that rotten thief while I’ll rip his arms off.”

Sun paused for a second, eyes flitting away from them before returning to them, adjusting his weight on his feet. “Well, that sounds… pleasant.”

“Nora enjoys inflicting painful punishments,” Ren added in. “she seems to think it helps with the learning process of what they did wrong.”

The Faunus nodded, eyes straying upward at the ceiling. “Well, I’m sure you’re uh… thief? Yeah, you’re thief will be caught if pinky here is on the case.”

“Oh, Sun, you have something sticky on your face,” Nora said, reaching up and rubbing at the substance at the corner of Sun’s mouth. “I think it’s… syrup?”

“Uh yeah, nice chat guys, but I gotta go find Blake or something, I’ll see you guys later yeah okay,” Sun said quickly, stepping away from Nora and hurrying off.

“Huh, that was weird,” Nora said, before turning back to her near empty plate, sucking on her thumb. “Oh well, at least he has a good taste in syrup brands. I wonder when the cafeteria started serving syrup foods here?”

Ren watched the Faunus’ retreating form. Yeah, that was a good question.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

To be truthful, it wasn’t like it was that hard to figure out how to catch the culprit (upon figuring out what to do Ren realized he could have done this sooner and saved himself quite a bit of grief). All that happened was that Nora snuck around in secret once Ren finished cooking and looked around for any suspicious people (although Ren would notice that Nora told the story a lot differently, filled with a lot more action and violence than what actually happened).

Setting the plate of pancakes down, the raven-haired boy purposefully turned his back and spent a few moments rifling through a drawer, waiting for the sound of something.

“Oh hey, Sun! What are you doing in the kitchen?” Nora’s chirpy voice asked, Ren turning around.

The blonde Faunus looked from Nora to Lie Ren and back several times, clearly aware of the fact that him holding a plate and reaching for the pancakes wasn’t really a good one. Quickly adjusting himself into a less suspicious position, Sun flashed them both a quick and forcefully easy smile.

“Hey guys, how are you? Lovely morning, yeah? Great day to not pay attention to me, am I right or am I right?” Sun asked.

“Oh it’s just great- _wait_ ,” Nora narrowed her eyes at the blonde. “ _You’re_ the one stealing Ren’s pancakes, aren’t you?! I eat those, y’know!”

“What? Nonsense, I’m not stealing anything!” Sun defended, raising his hands in defense, one hand still clenched around the surface of a plate.

“Then why do you have a plate in your hand and are so close to the pancakes, conveniently when no one was looking at them?” Ren asked flatly.

“… Coincidence?” Sun answered, taking a chance.

Nora growled, taking a step forward. Sun instantly shifted his stance, ready to run if the girl pounced. The tension in the air was unnecessary in Ren’s eyes, and he sighed, deciding to intervene before Sun lost his tail and moved past his childhood friend, grabbing the plate from Sun’s hands.

“Hey, wait, what are you-”

“Ask,” Ren said, piling on three pancakes onto the gleaming plate.

Sun raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Ask next time. You don’t need to steal,” Ren explained, handing the Faunus the plate. “just ask me and I’ll give you some. It’s simple.”

“Uh, yeah, this is me you’re talking to? Stealing food is kind of a second nature to me, while asking… isn’t a strong suit,” Sun said, tail twitching.

“Well now you know to ask instead of stealing and causing me distress. Now take these pancakes and go before Nora decides to break one of your bones anyway,” Ren said simply.

“Alright, well, thanks I guess- wait a minute. Distress? Were you… getting concerned over the theft of your pancakes.”

Nora cut in at that time. “He always makes twenty-three, so he got kind of annoyed at the fact you would take some and he’d end up with a smaller number than usual. He has this weird thing about it. Like, if he knows where they went he doesn’t care but man, if he doesn’t he gets _all_ -”

“That’s enough, Nora,” Ren said, cutting her off. “If you like my pancakes then just ask and I’ll give you some. Why did you steal them anyway?”

“Yeah, and why did you keep stealing more of them?” Nora asked, frown on her face.

“Like I said, asking isn’t my strong suit. And I’d be a liar if I said your cooking wasn’t killer,” Sun said with a light grin. “Plus, it’s kind of fun to mess with you a bit.”

Ren felt a small flash of irritation run through him. “Next time just walk in and tell me and I’ll be fine, and if next time you steal them I won’t stop Nora. Got it?”

Sun raised his hands in defense, nodding quickly. “Alright, yeah, I got it. No need to threaten me or anything. I’m sorry for the uh, _distress_ I caused you. Promise I’ll ask next time, and then you’ll know where all your precious pancakes went.” Glancing him over, Sun smirked lightly, winking. “It may not just be for pancakes though.”

Lie Ren sighed. He felt like he was going to regret this whole ordeal at some point.

 


End file.
